I suppose what I mean about zero mechanical interaction is the fact that the word “pet” or even kill command will rarely, if ever appear in the Marksman talent tree or abilities. From vanilla to wrath, the literal only instance was a minor increase of pet focus generation. Cata finally added a kill command interaction, but that got removed along with the concept of spec specific talents in MoP. We moved to specs as abilities then, and Marksman went down to having no pet based mechanics. It did gain intimidate and blink strikes as generic class talents, but even these were gone by Legion. Can’t speak much for bfa or sl, as I avoided those expacs. DF saw the return of generic class talents, which had some pet based ones, and spec talents, which did not. Nowadays if you search the word pet in the Marksman tree, you find one result: lone wolf. It seems to me that the pet was always something Marksman just had, but never interacted with in meaningful way as a spec.
They don’t want facts, they want outrage.
Change is good, but most don’t like it.
So we can get rid of the Sentinel Owl, the Dark Ranger Hound, and the stupid spotting eagle, then?
So what would you think if they removed stealth from Outlaw rogue because “pirate” and the only option folks suggested was “oh well, if you want stealth play sin or sub”
For all the folks saying “just switch specs”, that’s not a good answer.
the same thing I thought when they removed ranged weapons from survival and I got told to go play bm/mm
I’m looking forward to testing this since nothing has been set like jello cake. People always have something to gripe about and don’t realize how quick life can be gone so I am just looking forward to having a smile which I guess is a horrible concept right now.
Does Anyone actually play Survival hunter? I’ve never seen a single one. Legitimate question, I’ve legitimately never seen one in open world or dungeon content.
You’re confusing ability effects for actual, tangible pets
I have seen a few in random dungeons. Not many, mind you, but that might just be I typically play with 3 to 4 friends in the party. Any randos are rare in that case. Looking at the current parses for mythic palace, there are almost the same number of survival parses as marksman. Subject to change, of course.
I leveled one and did not like it. It’s a lvl 70 somewhere now, neglected.
You ever hunt? Other than dogs, you don’t really bring pets along. Hunters having pets doesn’t even make sense other than dogs.
Unless you are hawking! Aka Falconry. Not that i would call that particular sport marksmanship.
Good point. I saw some Mongolians taking down mammals with their birds!
I read a book called My Side of the Mountain as a kid where the main character drops out of society to live in the mountains. Tames a pet falcon and everything. It was a good series.
I have a survival hunter that I enjoy playing, but it’s hard to really think of him as a hunter. I don’t know how to describe it. Like a K-9 warrior (even if he’s not using an actual dog). All the rest of my hunters switched their specs. Yes, I’m an altoholic, and yes, I have many hunters (as well as every other class).
I don’t even want it is an ability, I want the eagle shot dead and turned into some deep fried nomnoms.
Ok but that has nothing to do with my point 
You ever see someone tame a tiger? or a cougar? especially after sticking its leg in a trap? Chances are those animals would eat you as soon as work with you, yet, here hunters are taming tigers and t-rexes lmao.
I don’t really want the eagle either
However
We already had murder of crows and now sentinel, which I have a feeling the eagle is an evolution of. I guess they try to have spells that aren’t so “magic” based for hunters which pushes them toward animals jumping in
So… if they don’t want us to use pets, but they want to shove animals into our spec, why not just let them use pets and have pets do those things instead?